Altidore scores winner as AZ beats PSV to lift Dutch Cup title

Jozy Altidore has enjoyed a dream season with AZ Alkmaar, and he found the perfect way to cap things off by scoring yet another goal, only this time to help his team win a trophy.

Altidore’s first-half strike proved to be the difference as AZ held on for a 2-1 victory over PSV Eindhoven in the Dutch Cup Final on Thursday. Altidore followed up an Adam Maher opener with his own goal through the legs of PSV’s goalkeeper for his 31st goal of the season in all competitions to give AZ a 2-0 lead in the first half.

PSV pulled a goal back, but never got closer as AZ’s defense held on for the upset victory.

Altidore’s goal capped an outstanding run through the tournament for Altidore, who finished the competition with eight goals in six matches.

Here is Altidore’s winning goal:

Altidore and AZ have one more match to play, this weekend against Willem II, before the end of the Dutch League season. The match will give him one more opportunity to extend his record for most goals in a European season by an American-born player.

What did you think of Altidore’s latest goal? Impressed with AZ’s victory over a strong PSV side? See him breaking through and scoring goals in World Cup qualifying next month?

Only professional soccer players who score millions of goals in both their European leagues and in USMNT international play are worthy respect particularly from winners on website comment threads. We must save our praises for players like that one guy we had … and let’s see, who else…

Oh and why does Messi keep winning all of these massive awards? Kid’s been a waste of Argentina’s time.

The most common formation in the Eredivisie is the 4-3-3 , the fact is, whenever the USMNT playes a 4-3-3, it ends up a 4-4-2 or a 4-5-1, and usually ends up starving Josy of good service. When the US learns to really give Jozy service from whatever formation, he will blossom and be a force. Altidore does not play well up front alone. Jozy playes well with others up front with them. As soon as JK sees this and gets the players have the discipline not to fade back, we will seea rampant Jozy for the US.

I will be extremely interested to follow his transfer rumors this summer. Needs to be extremely careful, would hate to see him go to a side where he will only get to play sporadically and thus ruin his current form. Having to compete for a spot is a good thing, but never playing isn’t. Moves in the year leading up to a WC can be very tricky.

Bradley would definitely pick out the pass. Whether his delivery was as precise as Jozy’s AZ teammate is another matter. Regardless, it is true that within the Eredivisie, AZ’s midfield is usually better than their opponents’ in terms of both tactical awareness and technique, something which definitely CANNOT be said of the USMNT midfield.

The match was extremely physical, with Jozy and Marcello nearly coming to blows. Interesting that the ref keep the whistle out of his mouth, and just let them play. It was one of the most hard-fought and exciting matches I’ve seen in years. At some point, the Eredivisie website will show Jozy’s on-pitch, post-match interview. His response as to what it took, and Verbeek’s response when asked about it, are classics. Nice to see AZ in Europa league on merit.

Thanks for answering the question I had that wasn’t addressed in the article. Namely, did the victory qualify AZ for Europa League. Well, if Jozy doesn’t leave he will at least have some European football next year to look forward to.

according to transfermarkt.de. If Jozy moves for 7 million i’ll be shocked. It will be more than 10 likely 12-15. Look at the record for players his age who’ve scored that many goals coming out of the Holland. There is a lot of upside on his price.

I honestly see Jozy as worth now at 7 million euros. Maybe his cup performance added another 500 K to him. If he was sold for 10 million euros, than AZ won the lottery. He won’t be sold for less than 5, that’s a guarantee

The quality of midfield players is more important than diamond vs empty bucket debate. You can put Pirlo in an empty bucket formation or diamond formation or christmas tree formation and he will find a way to deliver the ball to strikers.

i understand that completely. i agree 100% and am not trying to say otherwise. just wanted to comment on the actual differences that can be found within a 4-4-2.

the quality of players we are able to in the formations is another conversation. and right now we don’t really have someone who is perfect for that creative role. maybe corona or mix will one day, but it’s tough right now.

On the money TomG
I think your point about speedy wingers is every bit as significant as the need for a creative midfielder. Makes it MUCH easier to be creative/provide quality service when defenders are respecting a threat/backing off… there is width and space/lanes to make runs and deliver a ball into. Been all too easy to pack it into the middle with JA isolated and shrouded by 3 defenders. You really are asking a LOT of the guy delivering and receiving the ball in this scenario.

I may be in the minority but the only players in our pool with the vision and skill to play that ball are exactly Jones and Bradley. For me the issue is what’s happening behind them. If the CB position was more consistent these two could be freed to play a more offensive game. But the way things are they need to spend most of their time with their minds behind them instead of moving forward.

No rational person says that Jozy doesn’t have the talent. What he doesn’t have is the service. I bet if we were to check his stats under “Bunker Bob” vs “Klinnsyball” that we’d find that Jozy had more touches, more shots, and more goals under “Bunker Bob” than Klinnsman.

In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me to find that our offense overall was, statistically speaking, MUCH better under Bradley. For all of Klinnsman’s talk, he doesn’t seem to be improving the team. At all.

Check the defensive numbers for improvement. Not what JK promoted when he took the job, but I don’t think he knew how bad it really was in defense. We needed 3-4 dmids to stop other teams. He has improved in one area, IMO. Now the guys seem to really believe they can go most anywhere and get a positive result. Not saying BB didn’t have his big wins, but Italy, winning in Azteca, getting a draw at Azteca in WCQ… all that bodes well. But we did look really bad in Honduras, so the other side definitely has an argument.

I believe they were automatically secured of a Europa League spot because even if PSV won they are already in a Champion’s League position. Either way, playing for pride and it means winning silverware for the club. Huge win!!

I don’t understand the hate. He related with Italian football, which is till a far cry from American soccer in it’s history and sophistication. Rossi never gave the impression that he would play for the US, and he’s a good guy by most accounts.

He’s a disgrace. “He’s related with Italian football?” What does that even mean? He won’t be at the World Cup next year though. Hope he enjoys all the “history and sophisitaction” of Italian football from his couch.

What it means is that his father was from Italy and they, as a family, watched Italian football growing up. Do you think he just might have been inspired by what he saw, or should we criticize him for not embracing the MISL, or the local rec league?

I’m w/ you skyman. I’m disappointed Rossi didn’t choose to play for the US… would have been one of the finest to wear the shirt. Don’t hate the man or think he’s any less American because he made the best choice he could for himself. Oftentimes, the world ain’t either/or/black/white/with me/against me. I’m pretty sure being multi-cultural, the right to live ones own life…. you know… life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness is about as American as it gets.

He, Dempsey and Bradley. No more Donovan. Too soft. We need our young boys aspiring to be 1 of those aforementioned 3. Jozy could legitimately be a consistent scorer in a top 4 league. Need to get some press behind this boy.

Donovan is the past. Jozy should be the face of US SOCCER for the next 5-10 years provided he’s doing well and scoring. Kids should take a page out of his book. He’s doing well abroad and i’d love it if more kids, quite younger emulate him

I know many want him to be the past, but just you and others saying so doesn’t make it real.

as for which to emulate, I’d want them to emulate the guy who has delivered more points in the uniform than any 2 other players combined…that’s Landon btw. AND also Jozy, Clint, MB and others

but most importantly, the USMNT attack has been muted (to say the least) without Landon’s presence. I want the future to be now with all the other USA players too, but like it or not, no other US player can do for the team today what Landon does…it’s not in the past and yes, he’s that good no matter how many would prefer to claim it’s not so

as for the face of US soccer…Landon doesn’t want it anymore! Coach, Clint and MB are the ones carrying the torch presently imo

MAN was that a great ball in from his midfielder. Pinpoint.
Which takes nothing away from Jozy’s move on the two defenders, followed by a great shot. Superb all around. Why are they only mid-table again?

AZ only returned 1 starter from the back 4, and lost one of their best players(Marten Maartens) to injury. Etiënne Reijnen, who’s been a beast for the last two months, only became one after being benched for being a liability. Giliano Wijnaldum, who may have the most potential of anyone on AZ(that includes Jozy and Adam Maher), only became a starter after Donny Gorter was injured a few months back. Plus, while Roy Beerens has had a monster season at RW, LW has been a black hole for AZ, until Verrbeek began starting Jóhann Berg Guðmundsson. Throw in a few early in match red cards, near misses on goals that went in last season for AZ, the opposite for their opponents, a squad that has an average age of ~23, and that pretty much sums up why AZ was facing relegation, until things gelled in for the last 6 weeks or so. The turning point for the season seems to have been that win over Ajax in the Beker Cup semis.

At some point, we need to stop looking at Jozy for an explanation why he’s not scoring goals for the Nats and start looking at our midfield. It should be obvious. We clearly have a striker capable of scoring goals if we get him in good positions . . .

A disciplined, physical performance designed to wear down the other side.
Good goalkeeping
Strong set pieces
Giving the ball to Donovan on the counter and letting him make something happen.

The USMNT have been hard to break down and hard to beat. And on a given day, have been a threat to beat just about anyone in the world. Not pretty but effective. The style was determined by the talent pool.

Once a team gets to that point it is hard to change because changing styles means you may not win as many games as you used to. And for the US to miss the World Cup would be disastrous

Yet the USMNT fan base has clearly shown their displeasure with this style.

Unfortunately the US offensive talent that JK has to effect this stylistic change that everyone expects has not proven as rich as one might have hoped for.

There is has one proven talent, Dempsey, one possible star, Jozy and one wayward genius, Donovan. The rest of them are, by and large, either journeymen, still very unproven, or just useless.

If some of the “rest” don’t break out in the coming year JK will be forced back to the previous style to get through Qualifying and the World Cup.

there’s more to it tho; the midfield choices and the players tasked with the responsibility to create and link the D to the O, ans so to Jozy

that’s what the displeasure stems from imo, the player choices and constant deployment of players out of their natural positions while others who play those positions are shunned…talking about the linking and wide players, the non-holding midfielders